Horizontal shaft impact crushers (HSi-crushers) are utilized in many applications for crushing hard material, such as pieces of rock, ore etc. A HSi-crusher comprises a crushing chamber housing an impeller (alternatively termed a rotor) that is driven to rotate about a horizontal axis. Pieces of rock are fed towards the impeller and are struck by impeller mounted hammer elements. The rock pieces are disintegrated initially by striking contact with the hammer elements and are then accelerated and thrown against breaker plates (typically referred to as curtains) to provide further disintegration. The action of the impeller causes the material fed to the horizontal shaft impact crusher to move freely in the chamber and to be crushed upon impact against the hammer elements, against the curtains, and against other pieces of material moving around at high speed within the chamber. Example HSi-crushers are described in WO 2010/071550; WO 2011/129744; WO 2011/129742; WO 2013/189691 and WO 2013/189687.
Conventionally, the hammer wear parts are interchanged at the impeller via lifting engagers that are brought into position horizontally at the sides of each hammer. Such an arrangement is often problematic as access to the sides of the elongate hammers is restricted. Additionally, due to the appreciable size and weight of the hammer elements interchange at the impeller carries significant health and safety risks as it is typically required to manually manipulate the hammers into or from their impeller mounted position. Accordingly it is not uncommon for operator fingers to become trapped during installation and removal. What is required therefore is apparatus that facilitates mounting and dismounting of hammer elements at a HSi-crusher that addresses the above problems.